In a university setting, classes tend to follow a traditional model: the professor lectures, students take notes and then they complete their assignments outside of the classroom setting.

But the Engineering and Education Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering found that for some classes, this model simply wasn't as effective as it could be. So they flipped it – students now watch lectures outside of class and use their class time for more active learning.

"It's a much more engaging environment for the faculty to work with the students, and the students get more experiential learning opportunities," said Mary Besterfield-Sacre, director of the EERC.

I sat down with Besterfield-Sacre, associate professor and Fulton C. Noss Faculty Fellow in the department of industrial engineering, on Wednesday to talk about the flipped model and the work she and her colleagues have been doing at the EERC.

The EERC, which was launched in 2011, has a three-fold mission: bring research into the classroom, develop next-generation faculty members and expand engineering education research. Besterfield-Sacre said while flipping isn't a new area in education, it has become the hot area as of late with the advances made in technology and massively open online courses.

This semester, the Swanson School launched four flipped classes, with another two planned to go live in the spring. Besterfield-Sacre said they looked at the core of the engineering curriculum and evaluated which classes would be most conducive to switching to a flipped model.

Professors record their lectures, and then they are broken down into 10-minute segments for students to watch online outside of class.

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